The 1/26 issue of the ARRL Letter reports:
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports relating to Amateur Radio in the former Soviet Union (including the Baltic States) and Warsaw Pact countries are among documents declassified to a new searchable online database, the CIA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room. Documents cover translations and assessments of Amateur Radio clubs; training; monitoring Sputniks; technology and equipment; QSL cards, and ruminations on a plan to monitor US ham radio transmissions for activities “of interest” to the intelligence community. Searches on “Amateur Radio” or “ham radio” will yield multiple documents, some heavily redacted.
Many of them are simply translations of articles from Eastern Bloc magazines. For example, I found a translation of an article from Radio magazine (No. 5, 1950) written by Col. Gen. V. I. Kuznetzov titled, “Radio Amateurism Should be Encouraged in Every Way.” In it, Kuznetzov writes, “Undoubtedly, the success of radio amateurs in short-wave amateur activity, set building, radiofication of villages, etc., would be considerably greater if the Dosarm committees and organizations gave more encouragement to the development of radio amateurism.” Dosarm, as far as I can tell, is some kind of volunteer society whose purpose is to support the military.
What’s striking is that Kuznetzov, who was a decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, saw the very real benefits of amateur radio and having a population trained in radio techniques. He concludes his article with, “Complete development of radio amateurism is one of the most important tasks of the Dosarm in reinforcing the economic and defensive strength of the soviet state.”
Now, where can we find a present-day Kuznetsov here in the U.S. to be our champion?
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